I’ve lost all hope. I feel the end is near for me, very, very near. Darkness is all I see anymore.
-- Adam’s Journal (Prologue)

Importance: At the end of his third deployment and after the death of his best friend, James, Adam feels as if he has been immersed in darkness. He worries he will be killed and wonders which day will be the day he will die.

He was the great soldier who one day walked to the aid station and went through the door marked COMBAT STRESS and asked for help and now was on his way home.
-- Narrator (Prologue)

Importance: Adam admitted to his superior officers that he was having mental health issues. As a result, he was sent home.

Of the two million, studies suggest that 20 to 30 percent have come home with post-traumatic stress disorder — PTSD — a mental health condition triggered by some type of terror, or traumatic brain injury — TBI — which...
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)